Grey Television has officially opened Assembly Atlanta, a 135-acre mixed use property, in Doraville, Georgia. With 19 sound stages, the new development will quickly enter mass-scale film production while long-term plans to build a community around the studio, complete with office buildings, homes, retail outlets, parks, and an eSports facility, are underway.

Atlanta has long been appreciated for its ability to mimic big cities for filming purposes at a fraction of the cost, and Assembly Atlanta is no different. The whole property including the parks and buildings are designed to be filmable. The streets are named after the unique locations that they are built to resemble and designed in a city grid system to create multiple routes for locals to get home when a movie is filming near their residence.

“So, if you’re shooting on New York street or Tribeca street, you can close that street and go right around to where you live, work or play,” explained the developer, Jay Gipson.

The film aspect plays a foundational role in the property design, although there is also a strong urge to create a community-centered culture through parks, restaurants, and trails. 

“The public park on the outside will have a pavilion. The pavilion can be designed for movie nights, concerts, or events that the city might have in there. We’re also doing a series of small restaurant buildings. Those buildings are exclusively for those restaurants that are sitting in this amazing food world of Buford Highway,” added Gibson.

Developers expect the park to open within the year, and phase two of the project, apartments, retail, and hotels, will be underway for the next five-to-seven years.